God’s Politics
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People often ask me how I can be both a Christian and a Democrat (generally). The Republicans have done such a good job selling the GOP as “God’s Own Party” (as one member put it) and the Democrats have done such a good job of running from anything with God in it that it almost becomes a valid question.
I like to point out I am more Sojourners than Southern Baptist. I do believe that abortion is morally wrong, but I also believe that capital punishment is wrong. I believe that not doing everything we can to alleviate poverty is wrong. I believe that peaceful means will almost always end better than going to war at the slightest provocation. I believe that we should protect the Earth and not rape it for every ounce of raw material we can find. And none of these issues allows me to feel at home in the Republican Party.
I also feel that the Republicans aren’t as religious as they’d like us to believe. Sure, they like when the flock comes out and votes on Election Day, but what do they do for the religious the other 729 days in the election cycle? They get thrown a bone on gay marriage or abortion every once in a blue moon, but for all the so-called power of the Evangelicals what has really changed?
I also believe in the separation of church and state. Those that point out that this country was founded by religious pilgrims never seem to have an answer for the fact that those pilgrims were fleeing a country with a government sponsored religion that didn’t allow them to freely practice theirs.
And that’s why I think publications like Sojourners are so important. They show that not everyone can be painted by the same brush (even if the NY Times paints all Christians as bible-thumping inbreds). Sojourners has published a series of election guides this year to point some of the verses of the Bible outside of Leviticus that talk about issues that are important this Election Day. They’ve been summarized wonderfully by Jim Wallis on his blog God’s Politics. I’ve also uploaded several of the voting guides from Sojourners so you can have easy access to them. There are others that can be found on the Sojourner website. The following are in a pdf format (beware).
So, go out and vote on November 7th for the candidates that follow your morality the best. Not the one that has the right political party affiliation or who your friends tell you you should vote for.
On Monday, I will be covering the local election and endorsing the candidates that I will be voting for on Tuesday.